As Graff-Pinkert has gotten more into consulting machining businesses who want to sell their companies, we are constantly learning new things about what determines the value of machining firms.  Wednesday, I flew home after visiting a client we are helping sell its Swiss machining operation. On the plane, I thought back to a favorite episode [...]

Imagine a sheet metal prototype shop that was so fast and reliable it never turned down a job if it were physically possible to complete and the customers were willing to pay the price.  My guest today, Jay Jacobs, built his former company RAPID from a team of five to over 300. Before being acquired [...]

Today’s podcast is the fourth episode of our season interviewing people involved in CNC Swiss machining. Our guest is Mike Reader, owner and president of Precision Plus, a CNC turning company in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Mike came into the machining business at 31 years old following a career in the fast paced finance industry. When he [...]

I love this classic episode because it emphasizes how having fun with your product (or service) and feeling free to experiment with it can lead to success and happiness. Mike Taylor inquired on a Tornos GT26 Swiss lathe Graff-Pinkert had for sale. He told me that for him the machine would be like buying a [...]

This podcast has been going for five years now, and those people who listen to it frequently might be tired of the Graff-Pinkert ad at the beginning of the show. I was tired of it, so I finally created a new ad. For people who are listening to this show for the first time, I’m [...]

Editor’s Note: This podcast was recorded in Spring of 2022. Tyler has now been retired for over 2 years, and Noah is the proud father of a 1 year old. In early 2022, Tyler Jarosz sent me an email to ask if Graff-Pinkert would be interested in a used little parts washer he no longer [...]

George Konidaris is the cofounder of the startup, Realtime Robotics. He’s also a Professor of Computer Science and the director of the Intelligent Robot Lab at Brown University.

Right now, programming a robot arm to perform a repetitive task typically requires a robot integrator to program where every joint of a robot should go. It’s a ridiculous and tedious process.

But with Realtime Robotics’ AI technology, you can instruct a robot to do a task and you don’t have to tell it a zillion steps explaining HOW to do the task.

On today’s podcast we continue our season talking to successful companies who produce their own products. Today’s guest is Joel Trusty, co-owner and President of Trusty-Cook, a company that manufactures a diverse group of industrial polyurethane products such as dead blow hammers and spindle liners for bar loaders. Joel says one of the keys to [...]

Last week, I heard a story about an old customer of Graff-Pinkert who lost three key machinists because a shop down the street was paying more. It led me to make a post on Linkedin, asking if machinists and setup people were paid enough to attract young people to the machining field. On the whole, [...]

Today’s guest on the podcast is Jayme Rahz, CEO of Midway Swiss Turn, a small precision machining job shop in Wooster, Ohio. Around a quarter of Midway Swiss Turn’s business is supplying the U.S. Department of Defense. While supplying the DoD can be a lucrative opportunity for a manufacturer, the work comes with some hurdles [...]